Day 71

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. (Mark 1:40-41)

Jesus was moved with compassion.

I meet a lot of people, even students, who do not like Christianity because they perceive it to be a system of control. They view Christians as people who live fearfully under an angry God ready to unleash hell on those who do not conform to "holiness". But this is not what we see in Jesus Christ.

My dictionary defines compassion as a "concern for the sufferings of others." It's a kind of empathy. If that is correct, then it means that Jesus is concerned about us. He cares about our suffering. And the Scriptures go on to teach us that he saves us from our sin. 

You see, he does not have an observational concern, like I am concerned about the state of the economy. No, he has an active concern: One that moves him to action. Jesus acts on our behalf to defeat sin.

And what a better picture than healing a leper. Lepers are the picturesque image of the walking dead. They are feared by all and repulsive. Most men and women would never reach out to touch a leper, let alone minister to one. Yet here is Jesus having compassion on him. And Jesus heals him completely. All traces of leprosy have been removed from this man. Truly this is an image of breathing new life into that which is dead. It's reminiscent of Ezekiel 37, isn't it?

Yes, we surely serve a compassionate Savior!

So what is the point of all this? Well, it builds faith in us. Look at the passage again and you will see the faith of the leper as he reaches out to Jesus: "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

The faith we have is this: We know that if we seek Jesus in faith he will have compassion on us and heal us. He will forgive us our sins and they will be removed as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

Another way to put it is found in I John 5:14-15:

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."

We have the life of Jesus recorded in the Scriptures so that we may have faith.

Sola Fide,

Jay Silvas